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Giants
Long ago, the Giants ruled the world, in a series of great empires known collectively as the Titanic Empire. They were kings, philosophers, craftsmen and warriors, powerful mages building on the backs of slaves, some of whom they created whole-cloth. They fought with the Dragons, and eventually lost, though not before dealing enough damage to ensure dragonkind could not itself rise to replace them. Most live in the Arcane Realm, remembering their past glories. They have an eternal hatred of dragons, and when a giant and a dragon meet, they will inevitably come to blows. The primary races of giants view each other as kindred, with shared language, beliefs, and cultures, but follow a set caste structure assigning social ranks not only within but between the ranks. This is called the Ordning. The highest ranked chief of a lower race of giants is still considered below a commoner of the next ranked race. In order, the most common races in the ordning are; Storm Giants, Cloud Giants, Fire Giants, Frost Giants, Stone Giants, Hill Giants, and then finally the truly degenerated giants of the Mundane, such as Cyclops and Ettins and other giant-descended creatures. The Giants worship a wide-ranging pantheon of gods, fitting their wide-ranging abilities and dispositions. Giants speak their own tongue, one distantly related to other Arcane tongues, accented according to each race. Many also learn the common tongue of their region. Storm Giant Storm giants are the true princes of the Giants, wise and reclusive seers, benevolent yet distant. Some live at the bottom of the ocean, in deep oceanic rifts, others on cloud-top castles or on mountain peaks. Either way, they are so far from mortals as to be effectively completely isolated. They are far-seeing creatures, seeing the world in terms of patterns of the rise and fall of empires, not emperors. They read omens and give prophecies, and arrive at the truth, watching the stars and the whirls of the ocean depths for the secrets of the universe. They don't concern themselves with the Ordning, and indeed scarcely ever meet other Storm Giants except for the minimum amount of time needed to raise children. Rarely, they will meet to compare especially important portents, to ensure they are reading the signs correctly. Cloud Giant Cloud giants are reclusive princes, living on mountain summits and cloud islands literally far above the troubles of other species. Their high castles shield them from intruders, and their gardens, filled with wondrous fruits of monstrous proportions, are patrolled by vicious predators carefully trained. They rarely engage with other races, but will occasionally employ giants of lesser races as guards, smiths, or raiders to steal wealth or art. They hunt, as a noble would, with griffons or wyverns as if they were a hawk. They dress in the finest clothing, and most can play music, preferring instruments such as the harp. Cloud giants value worked wealth, and rare or wondrous items over simple gold or jewels. Within the race, their place in the Ordning is determined by their wealth, the extravagance they display, and their generosity with gifts. Conflict between Cloud Giants usually takes the place of bets and wagers of massive proportions, usually on events over which the giants have no control, such as the progress of a war between human kingdoms. Fire Giant Fire giants are militaristic warriors and smiths, building fortresses inside volcanoes and deep beneath the earth, using the molten magma to drive their forges. The fortresses glow from the heat and belch smoke constantly. In realms with no volcanoes, the Fire Giants deforest entire regions, and mine for coal to heat their forges. They pass on knowledge of smithing and war-making through songs passed down between generations. They enslave humanoids, especially their own creations, the Azer, to work farms and fields to feed the giants themselves, or to work in the mines, shunning such work as beneath them. Lowly fire giants manage the mining teams, overseeing the engineering of the tunnels. Fire giants are expert craftsmen, remembering much of the knowledge of the glory days of the Titanic Empire, especially when it comes to weapons, armour, fortresses and siege weapons. Those Fire Giants most skilled in the creation of weapons of war rank highest in the Ordning. They are the most active in seeking to restore Giant dominance over the world. Frost Giant Frost giants are brutal tribesmen and raiders, living in high mountain clefts and glacial rifts, hiding from the sun. They do not farm, and keep little in the way of livestock, preferring to hunt or raid for their food. They do not cook their food either, finding the heat of fresh meat warmth enough for their frozen hearts.Their raids follow especially bad blizzards, after which the Frost Giants descend to pick through the remnants. They have little interest in gold or treasure, more interested in food and metal goods. They consider the creation of goods to be below them, with the exception of goods of leather or carved wood and bone, materials with which they are intensely skilled. Otherwise, they raid or trade for goods. They respect strength over all else. Their place in the Ordning depends on their physical strength and proof thereof, including scars and trophies. Tasks within a clan depends on place in the Ordning. When different Frost Giant clans meet, they elect champions to wrestle and prove dominance. Sometimes this is a friendly bout with a festival atmosphere, at other times it devolves into a full brawl between the clans. Stone Giant Stone Giants are quiet, contemplative figures, preferring to be left alone in their caves underneath the mountains. They are grand artists, carving cathedrals of immense size underneath the ground, that others never see. Even the carved buildings of the Dwaerr hold no candle to these temples of stone, quiet, and darkness. They carve and paint murals across huge cavern walls, paintings of immense beauty. Their love of art extends to their physical exploits. Rock throwing especially is seen as a cross between an art and a sport, being the test used to organize the Stone Giant Ordning. Even in combat, a thrown rock is not just a weapon, but an artistic statement made with care and poise. Stone Giants are especially religious. The best stone-carvers enter trances, in which they carve out abstract shapes that are interpreted as signs from the gods. These seers act as shamans and chiefs, leading the Stone Giants. Stone Giants rarely leave their caverns. They view the outside world as something similar to a dreamworld, where the senses cannot be trusted, and actions do no truly count. As such, many Stone Giants act out fantasies of violence when they do end up above-ground. Stone Giants who do not fit into the artistic mainstream society often live above-ground, guarding the entrances to Stone Giant caverns systems, greeting trespassers with thrown boulders, leading to stories of intense giant violence. They keep the Galeb Duhr as servants, especially those living in the Arcane Realm. Hill Giant All but lowest in the Ordning, Hill Giants are intensely stupid, sharing only the basest cultural touch-points with their more intelligent brethren. Unlike their brethren in the Arcane Realm, most Hill Giants live on the Mundane, in valleys and hilly regions, preying on more civilized humanoids. They're grasp of craft is no more than enough to build and maintain rough timber or wattle-and-daub huts. Their weapons are rocks and trees found in nature, and their clothes untreated animal hides roughly sewn together. They aren't even fully aware of the Ordning, knowing only that other giants are stronger and smarter and should be followed. They eat anything they can find, ranging across the land, eating entire herds of livestock that they come across. Hill Giants have no culture of their own, merely aping other cultures around them. A Hill Giant among Elves will attempt to climb trees, while one among humans will try to sit at a table to eat. Other Giants Giants who find themselves in the Shadowfell region of the Arcane may become corrupted into the strange soul-eating Death Giants. Several races of degenerate giants remain on the Mundane realm. Some, such as the Cyclops, are isolated, with their own societies. Others, such as the two-headed Ettin, an especially dumb brute who tends to hang around Orc tribes, or the equally dimwitted Ogres, prefer to latch onto more civilized violent tribes. Some posit that the Ettin has some relation to the demon Demogorgon, who also has two heads.The Oni of the Golden Continent, are an exception; they are highly intelligent, and retain some magical powers, including invisibility, magical darkness, and shapechanging, but they still do not have much of a society to speak of. Category:Races Category:Monsters